


What doesn't kill us

by randomlittleimp



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-18
Updated: 2017-02-23
Packaged: 2018-08-31 19:46:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8591245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomlittleimp/pseuds/randomlittleimp
Summary: Vacations never really go as planned





	1. Prologue

Damn it Jim, I told you I need a vacation. I need to take a step back and get some space from all this..this space or I'm likely to pop like a pinata!" Leonard McCoy was hastily shoving his off duty clothes into an olive drab duffel bag that looked as old as the man himself and twice as worn out.

Meanwhile his friend and captain was standing by, arms crossed, and a frown on his usually gleeful face. "Bones, I need you on board, you're my chief medical officer. How are we meant to function without you for a month?"

"You'll be fine! My staff is more than capable of handling whatever disaster you fly the Enterprise into. Be thankful, I could have taken the full three months of leave I have stored up." The older man snitched up his bag and gave his friend a slap on the back as he headed for the door to his cabin with an uncharacteristic smile on his face.

As the two men headed down the corridor on their way to the transporter room, James T. Kirk did not look any happier, he ran his hand over his face in frustration. he really didn't know what he would do without Bones on board to keep him from his own brand of self destructive behavior, and it actually worried him. "Okay, fine, but why here? We are not that far from Earth, if you wait just six more months we are all getting shore leave there."

"Oh no, I can't relax on Earth, you know that. That is the only saving grace of deep space, the distance from my ex-wife. Deneva is perfect, M Class, human colonies, and completely free of that nasty neural parasite infestation. I've found a place outside the main cities where i can relax, maybe do some fishing and just find some peace." McCoy steps up on the transporter pad, setting his bag by his feet. "Don't worry so much Jim, you'll be fine. See you in a month." 

What neither man knows is these are the last words they will speak to each other for nearly a year.


	2. Chapter 2

He had been staying in the small lake cabin for almost a three weeks now, and everytime Anna saw him he looked more relaxed than the last time. He seemed like the kind of man who would thrive on a small back woods planet like Deneva, not many people around, no crowds or busy cities, just the calm waters of the lake and an occasional cool breeze coming down off the mountains. He seemed to love nothing more than to sit on the dock most of the day with a line in the water and a hat pulled low over his face, which is just how she found him when she pulled her pick-up up to the side of the cabin.

She didn't own the lake cabin, so she had no say in who got to rent it out, but she was the closest neighbor. Being a single mother of two impressionable teenagers she worried about those that drifted in and out of their lives, so she made it a point to meet all the cabin’s guests over the years. Leonard seemed like a responsible, albeit laid back guy. Anna enjoyed spending time with him, he was a good conversationalist, smart and well read with a wicked sense of humor.

She had seen his luggage when he arrived with the Starfleet insignia stitched into the front panels, so she knew he was well educated, but she just couldn't see this man out in space, he just didn't seem the type. He was always a perfect southern gentleman like you read about in old novels, all smiles, charm and a voice dripping with southern drawl. His eyes twinkled when he laughed and he had a serious pair of dimples when he smiled, although they were becoming more and more hidden as he didn’t seem to feel the need to shave while on vacation.

Anna climbed down from the cab of the large truck, her auburn hair pulled up in a messy ponytail, and walked to the back, dropping the tailgate to get to the basket nestled in between bails of hay. Once she had a hold of the basket she headed towards the end of the dock. Not wanting to startle the man, obviously dozing in his deck chair, she hollered out to him before getting too close, " Hey there Leo, I brought you some goodies from my garden."

The man turned towards her in his chair, a hand lifting his hat from his hazel eyes. A slow smile crept across his face as he takes in the sight of the basket overflowing with fresh vegetables in her arms. "Oh Miss Anna, you do know how to spoil a man. Are those tomatoes I see?" He raises to his feet, setting his fishing pole aside, and walk to meet her halfway down the dock, his feet bare, faded jeans and a loose cotton shirt hanging open a bit in the front. His skin had tanned to a nice golden brown over his time at the cabin and it made his smile all the brighter.

"They are indeed. I've also got some carrots and peppers in here, a head of lettuce and some of those small red potatoes you said you liked." Anna smiled at the tall man approaching her. "Besides I feel I owe you, I have more fish in my freezer than I know what to do with." 

"Why don't we take these inside then." He reached out to take the basket from her and headed towards the cabin, Anna followed behind. 

"Next time I swing around I should have some nice granny smiths for you. We're getting ready to go pick them this week." Anna smiled as she watched Leonard put the vegetables away while she leaned on his kitchen counter.

"Well, I may just have to thank you with a dish of Grannie McCoy's famous cobbler. Nothing is better than that in the known galaxy." He shot her another smile.

“If you share the recipe I’ll give you all the apples you can carry in your luggage to take with you when you leave, and potatoes to.”

“I may just take you up on that. Replicator food is fine for sustaining life, but it just doesn’t taste right.” Leonard made a face of mild disgust at the thought.

“Well, it would be a win-win scenario since my garden did much better this year then I could have imagined. If I didn’t start giving stuff away it would have been rotting on the vine. There is only so much my kids and I can eat in a day.”

“I don’t understand it Anna, you have that huge plot of land up there but you only grow in that little side garden of yours.” Leo leaned on the counter across from her.

“I’m no farmer Leo. The land was my husband’s idea of a retirement plan. He was the one with the big farm dreams. I’m just a former statistics officer living off her savings and what little work I can do from home.”

“Your late husband.” Leo face fell into a more serious expression. “He was in Starfleet too?”

“Yeah, he was an engineer on one of the ships lost during the Narada Incident.” Anna’s eye cast down to her hands where she was spinning her wedding band that she still wore. She told herself it was because she couldn’t get it off her finger anymore, but really she was just afraid of letting go of that last little piece of her husband.

“So many were lost that day. It was a damn shame. I am truly sorry for your lose.” Leo turned back to the cupboards to get some glasses down. He offered Anna a glass of sweet tea from a pitcher chilling in the fridge which she gladly accepted. 

Their silence was suddenly broken by the ring of Anna's communicator. Confused at who could be calling her she pulled it out of her pocket to see the face of her daughter Lyssa staring back at her. She flipped it open and held it out in front of her face, "Lyssa? Is something wrong?"

The frantic voice of her eldest child came through the little speaker, "Mom! It's Eric! he was climbing the big apple tree out back and he fell! He's in a lot of pain and ..and I think there's something wrong with his arm, it's hanging funny." 

Eric was Anna's younger child, a boy of just fourteen. Anna was already heading towards the door, "Did you call Doctor Lin?"

"Yeah, but he's on the other side of the lake, Mrs. Ferguson went into labor and he's not sure when he'll be able to get over here. Mom he's really scared and so am I." The tremble in the sixteen year old’s voice was heartbreaking. Anna's steps quickened, she didn't even notice Leonard behind her pulling his boots on and grabbing something from under the sink in the kitchen.

"I'm on my way now. I'll be there in just a second sweetie." She was already in the cab of the truck, reaching down to turn the key still in the ignition when the passenger door opened and Leonard jumped in. "Whoa, Leo it's okay I’ve got this."

He looked at her with a steely resolve that she had never seen on his face before. "Damn it woman I'm a doctor, let me help."

She stared at this new man before her for a second then just nodded and started the truck. When they got to the farm, Anna jumped out of the truck and sprinted around to the back of the old earth style farm house.

Leonard grabbed his travel med kit from the back of the truck, after years of treating every random attack or injury that Kirk could manage it had grown to the size of a small suitcase. He headed off in the direction he saw Anna running, towards the small grouping of mature apple trees in the field behind the house. He skidded to a stop next to the young man who was on the ground in obvious pain. Eric was gritting his teeth to try not to scream out and holding his left arm tight to his chest. Leonard grabbed the tricorder from his pack and started to scan the boy, already having a good idea what he would find. 

Adopting his most calming voice Leonard tried not to frighten the boy any further. "Now Eric, my name is Doctor McCoy I'm here to help. It seems that you have dislocated your arm as well as cracked a couple ribs falling outta that tree. Lucky for you these are easy to fix and I got everything we need right here in my handy med kit." He tried to smile at the boy who was looking up at him in a kind of awe tinged with fear he had seen on many young faces in his years of practice. "The bad news is the only fix for a dislocation is to just pop that sucker back in, but I'll tell ya now it's going hurt like a kick from a mule, but only for a second then it's gonna feel a heap better." The boy's eyes widened a bit and he looked over to his mother, to her credit Anna managed to keep it together and give her son a reassuring smile.

"Now I'm gonna ask your momma to move behind you and help you sit up really carefully. Nice and slow now, that's it." Once Eric was in position Leonard pulled a roll of bandages out of his kit and moved to the boy’s left side, "Now I want ya to bite down on this, I’d hate to have to treat you for a bitten off tongue too." Eric took the bandages in his mouth clamping down tightly, and with the practiced skill of the man who treats Jim Kirk on a regular basis Leonard took Eric’s left arm and popped the joint back into place with a quick motion. Eric's scream muffled by the bandages but the instant relief showing on his face. Leonard took the roll of bandages back and used them to make a quick sling.

"You're doing great, worst part is over.Tell me mom, does he have any allergies?" Anna shook her head, tears in the corners of her eyes. He reached over to his kit and put together a quick hypospray and gently placed it on the boys neck. "This is a pain killer, it will help." He injected Eric quickly and then rubbed the spot gently. "Now we should get you into the house, I'm gonna need you to lay down for a while so I can place my regenerator over those ribs. It won't have the strength to heal them completely but it will get them most of the way there." Leonard moved around to Eric's right side and Anna moved back as he got his arms around the boy.Gently lifting Eric to his feet, he slowly walked to boy inside.  
"Anna, darling, could you grab the medkit for me please. Lyssa lead the way to his room if you would." The woman did as they were asked and soon Eric was laying on his bed starting to doze off while the regenerator strapped to his side did it's work. 

“This has got to be the largest first aide kit I have ever seen. Why would you need something so extensive? And why are there a dozen or more vials labeled 'Jim Safe'?" Anna gazed down at the collection of medical supplies in the case. 

Leonard chuckled, "My captain 'Jim Kirk' has an extensive list of severe allergies so I need safe alternatives for him. it's easier to just label them that way then have to answer questions from nurses when ever he's in medical, which is more often than one would think humanly possible." Leonard takes a moment to run the tricorder over Eric once more to make sure his ribs are healing properly and he hadn't missed any other injuries. "I swear that man is a danger magnet. No matter where we end up he can find the most dangerous thing around and piss it off, animal, vegetable or mineral. it's a miracle he's still alive."

“It’s not a miracle if he’s got you as a doctor. You were amazing back there, thank you so much.” Anna hugged him tight.

Leonard stiffened at the contact for a moment but soon relaxed into it, giving Anna a soft pat on the back in response. “It’s not in me to leave someone to suffer if I can help them. What kind of doctor would I be if I did that.”

“Well thank you all the same. How about a cup of coffee?”

“You look like you could use something a bit stronger than coffee.” Leonard smile at the obviously frazzled woman.

“That can wait for later. I still need to do a few things before I can be that relaxed, including driving you back to your cabin.”

“Well in that case, coffee would be fine. It’ll be a little while for the regenerator to do its job, so you’re stuck with me for a bit.”


End file.
